Thea and I adopted a puppy! He is a lab mix of some sort. They do not know who his dad is. The important thing is he is small and sweet tempered and cute. Like, weapons-grade cute. He is already a heartbreaker. Over the marathon weekend at least a dozen friends of ours fell in love with him. We have a long waiting list of eager puppy-sitters.

If for some reason you are a terrible person and don’t like puppy pictures, please skip ahead. For everyone else, please enjoy a few pictures from Teddy’s first weekend with us:

Teddy is excited to start work as chief spokespuppy for Gear West Bike

Teddy is a strong napper

The Gold Guys requested I only adopt gold puppies. I was contractually obligated to take this guy.

Teddy helped us cheer during the marathon. Here Thea’s dad took a quick puppy break.

It was also Twin Cities Marathon weekend. I am spoiled to have so many fit friends who can take on a challenge like the marathon. We had people to cheer for running in the 2:20s up to the 4:30s. I had several athletes run the 10 mile, but that starts pretty early so they were on their own. Plus it was just 10 miles so they didn’t need as much encouragement. I am always amazed watching the marathon. There are many different body types out there on the course and many different running styles. At the front end of the field it is shocking to see some of the guys who are keeping up even though they don’t have the classic look or style of a distance runner. Seeing people around half way, some you just think ‘no way they can keep that up!’ Obviously at that point some are in way over their heads and will be blowing up shortly, but some make it happen the whole race. Good on them for being willing to do the work to achieve to their best level. It is also humbling to see the masters guys just flying out there. They may be ‘over the hill’ on paper but they are still moving! Two Minnesota women Michelle and Meghan ran their way into the top 10 which was great to see. I have been on runs with each of them so I feel like I get to say ‘Oh yeah I know her. We train together.’

The one athlete I had racing the marathon only got his entry a couple months ago. Previously we had just been doing running as general conditioning so it was a rather abrupt change of gears to start him on marathon prep. He was smart during the training process and we built him up with the time we had. He was also very smart on race day and started gently enough so he could build through the middle stages. He started over 8 minute pace but ran so well over the bulk of the distance he went under 3:30. I saw him at 24 miles and he was obviously stiffening up at that point but he got it done. I don’t like giving away too much free advice but being smart can be good for your racing.

Thea runs for TCRC so after seeing everyone at mile 11.5 we watched from their ‘cheer zone’ at mile 24. They put on quite a show:

Our friends Chris and Jenna stayed with us for the weekend and to celebrate Chris’s birthday Saturday I got him a little present from Mel-O-Glaze:

Chris is a nice fellow but sadly he did not have the strength or endurance to finish his donut on his birthday.

Good luck to all of Minnesota’s strong ladies racing Kona on Saturday! I’m sure we have a few guys going but let’s be real, our women’s squad is stronger. Get to it! I would love to see Raelert or Kienle win for the pro men. I have no idea who will win for the women, but I fully endorse Heather Wurtele. She is tall and badass, though she does suffer from severe Canadianness.